In a column intended to attract readers, not to promote hard economics, Rotman University economist Richard Florida declares that home ownership is terrible for the US Economy.
The problem is, like many economists,** Florida’s understanding of home ownership is 180 degrees ass-backwards**. Florida thinks that home ownership is supposed to _cause_ economic growth.
Instead of leading to economic development, higher rates of homeownership today are associated with lower levels of it.
No, professor. Home ownership is the reward for economic growth in healthy systems. In the 1990s and 2000s, however, government mandates more or less forced people to buy homes and forced banks to lend to anyone. That drove up the home ownership percentage without the organic economic growth to justify it.
Once we unwind from 20 years of bad Washington policy, home ownership will once again signal a health economy and stable neighborhoods.
Now if you’d help us get government and crony big bankers out of the way, we’ll restore housing equilibrium and a vibrant economy in no time.